Monday, July 27, 2009

A recent post in my Twitter feed caught my eye. The author, (I am withholding the name to protect the innocent...) a Technology Facilitator, said:

So here is my question. Do we as schools, districts and states need to keep drilling keyboarding into our students? Currently in North Carolina 6th graders take a "keyboarding" class however that is getting ready to change within the next 2 years. What does your state require? As I type this post I notice that I do not use standard keyboarding skills with specific fingers on specific keys. I have taught myself what works for me.

So, are we wasting our time teaching keyboarding to kids. Can't they develop their own skills that work for them? Are there not better skills (social media responsibility, digital projects, etc...) that we could be teaching instead of keyboarding? Or am I way wrong? Do you think kids still need to learn a specific way of typing in order to be successful?

13 comments:

The most frustrating part of using Web 2.0 tools with my sixth graders has always been how slow they are at the beginning of the year. They haven't had any keyboarding experience at all before they take that keyboarding class. (I am in NC.)

These poor kids take what seems to be forever, just to type a VERY SHORT response to an email or blog. As they learn more about keyboarding, we can do more things. I think kids need the keyboarding in the sixth grade as well as basic familiarity with basic computer skills such as saving a file, local network use, and search skills.

With the new budget, we may lose the computer test. Changes in the curriculum will be interesting to watch if this occurs.

Maybe at the beginning, but to keep drilling keyboarding skills to me is a waste of time, they catch on easily and will have no problem getting the basics. Now that I look, i know that I also use a rather unorthodox hand position to type.

Steve,We place keyboarding in grades 2-5 as part of the technology curriculum cycle. It seems to work well--and gets their fingers acclimated early on. I see benefit in keyboarding in terms of "efficiency" and "confidence" in much the same way that I see handwriting as a tool that is critical for "presentation" and "accuracy."

So, do I think an entire year should be devoted to keyboarding at the expense of much more critical components of the technology curriculum--NO. Do I see a benefit in cycling this through in 4-6 week periods per year...yes.

In Thailand, we teach typing from Grade 2 onwards. They actually get marked on it and have benchmarks set for expectations. By Grade 5, they should be typing at 25 WPM at 90% accuracy. I think it's really important to devote SOME time to this - not a lot of time...but to promote it as an important skill that will improve their efficiency on the web.

After trying all the software programs, because kids with dysgraphia need to learn to keyboard well as soon as possible (hand is big enough in third grade), I found that the exercises in an old typing book I bought at a garage sale, established proficiency in a quarter of the time with short 15 minute practice sessions. Forget Mavis Beacon, et al. The instructional design doesn't match those old books.

I refused to learn to type as a stubborn teenager in the bad old days, and though I'm pretty fast on my own computer(s), I make far too many mistakes, especially when I get on anyone else's. So I think it's a key - pardon the pun - skill

For years, I used a method learned from my father -- "The Columbus Method." As my father explained to me (after indicating that I shouldn't waste a high school credit on typing class), "you spot a key and land on it." Essentially, two-finger typing. "The Columbus Method" got me through high school, my undergrad, my teaching degree, and my first few years of teaching.

One summer, many years later, while supporting (among other things) our district's grade 4 implementation of the Almena Keyboarding method http://www.almenatyping.com/cart/index.php, my Superintendent walked by my desk, and commented that I was typing with only two fingers. Deciding that I needed to be a better role model, I took two weeks that summer and ratcheted down my WPM expectations long enough to "learn" the key locations using the home-row, etc. It really didn't take all that long, and it made an incredible difference in my keyboarding skills, especially when having to copy-type for research papers, etc.

Bottom line: yes, you can type by "spotting the key and landing on it," but you'll be much more productive if you need to have your eyes somewhere other than on the keyboard while typing. I've tried voice recognition software for years, and it's really still not there yet. So, yeah, kids will be better served in their writing if they can touch-type. Do we need to spend class time teaching it to them, ... perhaps that's another question.

Keyboarding can be taught as a skill inside a bigger picture goal("social media responsibility, digital projects, etc..."), but we can't pretend that kids will learn quality typing skills on their own. I've seen it with my own eyes. Kids cannot type. That's K-12. I'm fine with skipping the actual "keyboarding class", but they do need sustained time typing at some point.

For the first time in my teaching career, I plan on building in some keyboarding lessons using typingweb.com for my seventh grade L.A. classes. The amount of time we waste in the computer lab while they hunt-and-peck is ridiculous. I'm having students find their initial WPM, and then set their own goals.

when you press print or publish, the way you typed is not recorded. While experienced typers are perhaps faster, the end product looks the same. Further, students are typing, albeit "incorrectly" at a much younger age, they are more comfortable with a keyboard than a pen/pencil. How they type is completely irrelevant. It's more about what they type than how!

Honestly, I've begun to think that maybe we should teach "thumbtyping". If we're truly thinking about future needs- texting has become a nearly essential skill for communication among those with cellphones.

I think we still need to teach them typing not drills per say but familiarize them with the keyboard, tech them shortcuts, etc. I use keyboarding as a 5 minute warmup as my DO NOW when they come to computer lab. My hope is they can build a little accuracy and speed so it wont take them an hour to type a paragraph

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